As a result of a friend’s posting on facebook, I decided to  visit the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway on Saturday 8 January to experience one of their Winter Weekend days. He works there as a volunteer, and was hoping that the snow and ice would not prevent him from getting there.  I had presumed that the railway would not be running at this time of year, so it was lucky that I saw his status.  In fact, this railway runs at weekends throughout the year and all week at busier times.  Full details of  timetables can be found at www.kwvr.co.uk/timetables.html

Today was the day for us to fly home from Toronto Airport, and the planned route crossed the border into Canada close to Niagara Falls – so naturally a stop there was included.

However, rather sooner than we expected the buses came to a halt in a car park.

The car park of

Martin’s Fantasy Island – Sat 31st July

We were rather later arriving than had been planned, due to ongoing problems with the bus. (Yes, it had been planned all along, just kept a secret from all except the organisers)

As a result, we had very little time there. Just long enough to ride their woodie – which was surprisingly good for such a small park – and spinning mouse. It’s a shame we did not have longer, it seems a nice park with a reasonable selection of rides. And I didn’t get any photos either, sadly. After all, I was there to ride coasters 😉 It’s not as if I’d been riding them all week, is it? 😆

All too soon it was time to head for

Niagara Falls

Again, we only had a short time here because of the earlier problems with one of the buses (although that had been fixed while we were at Fantasy Island). It was lunchtime anyway, and me and my room mate decided to enjoy lunch in a nice place overlooking the falls – I think it was a good decision.

Just 3 miles on the coach today to

Cedar Point – Thursday 29th July

What to say about Cedar Point? It’s a pretty big park, but the rides are still close together (not quite as much as Blackpool though) because there are so many of them. And no less than 17 coasters among them.

We started the day with an half hour ERS on Maverick (before the park opened) I’d not ridden it before, because it was closed on my only other visit here. It has a launched lift hill (the launch actually continues up the hill) although that is not as exciting as it sounds. It’s not really greatly different to the fast (ski-lift type) on Millennium Force in my opinion. It also has a 95 degree first drop – which was a record when it opened, but now is hardly talked about. The restraints are similar to Rita’s, but the coaster itself is far more extreme (not saying much, I know 😉 ) which means that it is an ear basher unless you can see what is coming and take evasive action. As a result, I only enjoyed that ride in the front seats – although I know others who enjoyed it because they have to actively ride it.

Back on the coach for the 4 mile ( 😎 😀 ) trip to

King’s Island – Wednesday 28th July

This is a sister park to King’s Dominion, which I visited on the 2009 trip. A lot of the same rides feature in both parks, and the layout of the two is quite similar – including the replica of the Eiffel Tower.

The first two rides of the day weren’t on any of these though.

The first was on Diamondback – a B&M Hypercoaster

Next morning it was just 40 miles to

Holiday World – Tuesday 27th July

Sadly I did not get any photos that day.

You may have seen The Voyage discussed on other topics. And although far from the roughest coaster I have ever been on, it is probably the wildest. As a result, they have a very strict policy about no cameras on the ride – not even in a zipped pocket. And since we were reminded the night before that breaking that rule would not just result in being thrown out of the park, but also being thrown off the trip I decided the best place for my camera was back on the coach.

I had heard so much about The Voyage before I got to this park that I was both looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time. Some of the talk was from the ‘rough riders’ on the trip, and I know how bad some of the coasters that they like are in truth.